MovieChat Forums > The Captive (2014) Discussion > Canada captivated me with The Captive

Canada captivated me with The Captive


I thought this movie was excellent. I appreciated the fine cast of actors and the story was great. It kept my interest and I was truly captivated. I also give props for not giving away procedural investigative tactics on trying to catch these pedophiles.

Too much information is normally given away in movies like this where they actually tip off or give ideas to criminals and I thought it genius to be able to write the script and tell the story without having all the horror spelled out for me.

In my generation what's left to the imagination is far better than other peoples views anyway, we all know what makes us sick. In movies like these the writer normally details so much that I would find it too disturbing to watch. I still found it very thought provoking and realistic as to how people would feel and deal with this sort of situation from every role. I gave this movie a 10. The 5.5 rating seems to me that someone had an axe to grind and panned this film which is a shame, I hope people give it a shot and remember that sometimes votes are fixed for political reasons. I wonder whose career they're targeting to destroy? It'll be interesting to see and won't happen with me.

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I agree that "The Captive" featured a fine cast of actors in a great setting (much of it was filmed here in my home town!) -- but that's about all I can say for it. You may well argue that the screenplay was both great and original, but what was original about it wasn't great and what was great about it wasn't original. This film was basically a retread of last year's thriller "Prisoners" (also directed by a Canadian), not to mention the original "Taken" movie and (as others have previously noted) certain episodes of "24."

To be honest, I found the back-and-forth timeline very jarring at times, and not in a friendly "Pulp Fiction" way either. (At one point, one of the main characters is abducted, and then in a subsequent scene she is walking around free; it takes viewers a second to realize that this new scene takes place PRIOR to that previous kidnapping sequence.)

In addition, certain plot twists were both bizarre and completely unnecessary. (Really, a trail of Christmas trees when a handwritten note stuck under a windshield wiper would have sufficed? Of course, such a note wouldn't have been quite as cinematic.) Then there was the the "happily-ever-after" conclusion which was never really in any doubt ("Prisoners," at least, had me guessing a bit at the end).

Sadly, this was quite the misfire from the usually reliable writer / director Atom Egoyan. Perhaps he should go back to adapting the works of OTHER writers -- he's been MUCH more successful doing that in the past. (But, yeah, at least the Canadian scenery was cool!)

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